


Don't Sweat the Small Stuff More Than You Should Be

by PriorityNaps



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 21:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18455351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PriorityNaps/pseuds/PriorityNaps
Summary: (Takasugi/Katsura & Gintoki/Hijikata)Takasugi decides to do a little something for Katsura.Gintoki's got a surprise of his own.





	Don't Sweat the Small Stuff More Than You Should Be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sweetysweetssugarytreats](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweetysweetssugarytreats/gifts).



> This is my first fic.  
> Like. EVER.  
> Plz go easy on me!!

Hijikata yawned and propped his head up on his fist. He’d pulled an all-nighter to study for his physics test and the stupid thing ended up being a piece of cake. Hell, even the kid with freckles completed it in 20 minutes flat without raising his hand to ask one of several dumb questions.

Seriously, though, what had gotten into Sensei? Very few of his students managed to end the school year with a passing grade in his class. His exams were very meticulously made, and Hijikata remembered having to memorize entire pages full of tiny words describing quantum mechanics and relativity the week before. So when Hijikata arrived to class and was handed his test paper, he had to blink several times before finally accepting the fact that even Sougo had enough brain to answer each question with ease.

He sighed and gazed out the window. Today was rather pleasant for a day in early March. The skies were cloudy, but no rain was forecasted for the afternoon or evening and rays of sunlight would peak through every now and then. The occasional breezes were accompanied by the sound of small branches and dead leaves rustling. It brought Hijikata peace.

“-ta. Hello, Hijikata-san?”

Hijikata tore his gaze from the window. His teacher was stood by his desk with his hands on his hips, peering down at him with...was that concern on his face? Behind him, Hijikata could see the rest of the students filing out the classroom. The clock above the doorway read 11:57.

Hijikata swore under his breath and cleared his throat.

“Um, sorry, Sensei. Please excuse me.”

He stood from his desk before bending down and grabbing his back by the handle. He slung it over his shoulder, gathered his books, and speed-walked out the classroom. He could feel his teacher’s gaze burning into his retreating back.

“Whatever was that, Hijikata? I didn’t peg you for a daydreamer.”

Hijikata turned his head to see Katsura stood by the classroom door, arms crossed and brows arched in speculation.

“I wasn’t daydreaming. Now c’mon, bell rings in two minutes.”

He made his way to the H lockers without turning back to see if Katsura was behind him. The two had History at the same time and walked to class together. Every now and then someone would nod at Hijikata or pat him on the back in greeting, but he was too annoyed to notice anything right then.

He twisted the combo into the lock and swung his locker door open. The same carefully-organized shelves of textbooks and notebooks greeted him, along with a small purple piece of paper sat on top of his lunch. Hijikata hefted his bag before reaching for it and unfolding it.

‘ _Classroom beside the M lockers, 12:50_ ’ it read. He grinned to himself. Only one person would slip a note like this in his locker.

He shoved the paper in his pocket and grabbed the 3-inch textbook sitting among the other thinner ones before closing his locker with his foot. Only History textbooks were that thick.

 

 

 

...Or not.

 _Well, fuck_ , Hijikata thought the second he took a look at the bold letters printed on the hardcover. _And here I thought I couldn’t hate Calculus any more than I already do._

He sighed through his nose and instead focused on the teacher’s obnoxious red-framed glasses. Sensei brought in a different, brightly-colored pair every month, and Hijikata didn’t know if he’d lost the others or if someone had plucked them off his face and thrown them at the nearest concrete wall out of annoyance. He guessed it was the latter, though the first made more sense.

Hijikata only tuned back into what Sensei was saying when the latter turned his head to the door. Sensei’s hands flew to his hips as he frowned at the teenage boy stood in the doorway. Said teenage boy had his hands on his knees and was panting like he’d run here straight from his house.

“You’re late,” Sensei said through gritted teeth. Maybe it was the glasses that were at fault, but Sensei never did a very good job at intimidating people, which was why he usually resorted to snitching on students to the principal. The only exception would be, well, the kid stood in the doorway. He always turned into a trembling, spluttering mess when addressed to with so much as a frown.

“Ah-I-I’m terribly sorry, Sensei! My-my locker was j-jammed so I h-had toㅡ”

Sensei pushed his glasses up and sighed, perhaps secretly pleased that someone in this godforsaken school took him seriously. “Yes, yes, please take a seat.”

The boy bowed several times and apologized profusely before jogging to an empty chair close to the back of the classroom.

“God, what a wimp.” Katsura whispered behind Hijikata, “He’s the only one who's afraid of Sensei, and that’s really saying something.”

Said teacher had now turned his attention to the rest of the class, so Hijikata only nodded silently in response. He didn’t want a repeat of Sensei snitching on them to the head-of-school again, though watching him burst into the principal’s office like some wailing toddler was an opportunity he’d gladly accept.

“Alright, class,” the man began, “please turn to page 241 of your textbooks, read the lesson, and answer the questions at the end to make sure you’ve understood what you’ve read. I’ll call on people to answer the questions inㅡ” he peered up at the wall clock “ㅡ20 minutes. If you have any questions or don’t understand anything, please raise your hand and I’ll come right to you.”

Soon enough, the classroom plunged into silence. The only sounds to be heard were pages flipping and pens scratching against paper.

Hijikata leaned back in his chair and glowered at the open textbook before him. He looked up at the teacher’s desk where Sensei was snoring away in his chair, head slowly dipping toward his chest. Usually, he’d be wandering the rows of desks and peering over students’ shoulders to see if they weren’t slacking off, but not this time. Hijikata wouldn’t exactly call himself lucky today, but he was still grateful.

He shifted in his seat to see a very engrossed Katsura leaned over his textbook, brows scrunched in concentration. He didn’t move when Hijikata hissed at him, but a flick to the forehead made him look up.

“Owww! What was that for, dimwit?!” Katsura whisper-screamed.

Hijikata stole a glance back at the teacher’s desk before turning fully to rest his forearms on Katsura’s desk.

“Gimme yer book, I brought the wrong one.”

Katsura line-faced.

“Again?”

“The hell you mean ‘again’?! That was Tsugi!”

Katsura’s face lit up at the mention of his boyfriend’s name. A smudge of pink colored his cheeks and Hijikata had to flick him again so he wouldn’t stare off into space.

“Justㅡshare the book, will ya?”

“Ok, ok! Herㅡ”

Suddenly, Katsura froze. His eyes went a tad wider and Hijikata, having seen that face one too many times, took it as a cue that Sensei had woken and was now making his way to their desks with his stupid red-framed glasses.

“Boys, what is this?”

Sensei put his hands on his hips and peered down at the two teenagers over his glasses. He almost considered taking them off and squinting instead, but chose not to. What he wished to have been panic settled on the boys’ faces for a second or two before the one in the ponytail cleared his throat.

“Excuse us, Sensei. I was just asking what page the lesson was on.”

The man tilted his head and narrowed his eyes in quiet contemplation. Then, “Very well, young man. Carry on.”

Hijikata waited for Sensei to walk over to a student who had their hand up before turning back to Katsura.

“He still doesn’t know my name, does he?”

“...Nope.”

-x-X-x-X-x-

“Goddammit, Bakasugi, will you hurry the fuck up?”

Gintoki put his hands on his hips and glared down at the purple-haired boy crouched beside him. Said purple-haired boy’s gaze was fixated on a row of flowers before him, different species tied together and wrapped in plastic synthetic paper to make colorful bouquets.

“Y’think he’d like the red, orange, and pink ones or the blue, green, and purple ones?”

Gintoki blanched, partly because he was being ignored.

“Do I look like I’d know? I’m not an expert in Zura’s flower color preferences! You’re his boyfriend for fuck’s sake, you should know!”

He ran a hand through his curls and checked the time on his phone.

“And we’ve been here for over half an hour, just pick some fucking roses and let’s go!”

Takasugi craned his neck to glower at Gintoki.

“What kind of a boyfriend gets roses? Only lazy assholes with no creativity do that, and I want to show Zura that I’m not a lazy asshole with no creativity.”

He scratched the back of his head and sighed.

“Damn, why is it so hard to pick flowers for Zura? What if he’s super picky about them and he doesn’t like the ones I give him?”

Gintoki crossed his arms and stayed silent a few moments before responding.

“It’s not hard, you’re just thinking too much. Don’t worry about whether that airhead will like them or not. Just keep in mind that he’ll appreciate you doing this for him. He knows very well that you’re not one to show affection, so make it count.”

Takasugi said nothing, but he knew Gintoki was right. He never so much as smiled at Katsura during school hours, let alone in the public. It wasn’t that he was too shy to, or that he was afraid of others’ opinions. It was that he had this indifferent/emotionless aspect of his personality that he preferred to stick to for the most part. And Katsura seemed to be okay with it, so he never gave it much thought.

But this...this was going to be new for the both of them. Takasugi was taking a very bold step in this situation, and he was confident it would pay off well in the end. He could already imagine the way Katsura’s lovely face would light up andㅡ

“Oi! Snap out of it, will ya? We’re in a fucking grocery store, people’ll start staring!”

Gintoki’s obnoxious voice snapped him out of his thoughts. The asshole was glaring down at him again with his arms crossed like he was the fucking store manager.

“Alright, alright, justㅡhelp me out, will ya?”

Gintoki made a noncommittal noise before gluing his eyes to his phone screen.

Takasugi sighed and turned back to the assortment of flowers before him. He stared for a moment or two before finally throwing his hands up.

“Why is it so hard to pick flowers for Zura?!”

-x-X-x-X-x-

Hijikata ran a hand down his face and followed Katsura out the door. Staring at Sensei’s red frames for a good seven minutes had been bearable enough, but being lectured about choosing the right textbook wasn’t. Who lectured their student’s about choosing the right textbook, anyway? Just how desperate was Sensei to earn some respect and recognition from his indifferent pupils?

“Where do we have next class?”

Hijikata turned his head to see Katsura balancing his bag on one knee while sifting through the papers and books inside. A lock of hair fell from behind his ear.

“Don’t we have lunch next?”

Katsura stopped what he was doing to narrow his eyes at seemingly nothing. He slowly lowered his leg.

“Yeah...we do.”

Hijikata watched as Katsura zipped his bag and replaced the straps on his shoulders. He put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, everything good?”

It was very well-known by his closest friends that Katsura was a rather meticulous person. He was always on top of things when it came to assignments, had memorized his and Takasugi’s schedule on the first day of school, and was the self-appointed mother hen of their little clique. The fact that he’d forgotten something as mundane as the time they had lunch was...well, alarming.

Unfortunately, being the airhead he was, Katsura didn’t see what was wrong. He tilted his head at Hijikata’s question and eyed him skeptically.

“Yeah. Why do you ask?”

Hijikata quirked an eyebrow at Katsura.

“It’s Tsugi, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“You’re worried about him. Neither of us has seen him since homeroom, and he probably hasn’t texted you all day, so you’re worried about him.”

Katsura blinked at him momentarily before tucking the stray lock of hair behind his ear. His gaze fell to the floor.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. He really hasn’t texted me at all, and he usually does around ten o’clock…”

Hijikata scoffed.

“C’mon, Zura, it’s Tsugi. He’ll be fine, and besides, Gin’s probably with him too, the little fucker.”

He said the last part more to himself than to Katsura.

“What do you mean Gintoki is with him? Are they not in school?”

His eyes widened.

“Did they skip again?”

Hijikata gulped. _Shit_.

“What?! No, no! Where’d you get that idea from?!”

Katsura’s expression returned a relaxed poker face. He shrugged.

“Dunno. Anyway, it’s lunchtime. We better get going, no?”

Hijikata nodded.

“Alright then, see ya!”

And with that, Katsura disappeared into the throng of students, his jet black hair flowing behind him. Hijikata watched him go for a minute or two before letting his shoulders sag. He brushed his bangs out of his face and sighed.

_Thank God Zura’s an airhead._

He didn’t mean to let it slip, but it did. Though it could mean anything, Hijikata had blatantly pointed out that yes, Takasugi and Gintoki had indeed skipped school again. Well, the first few classes, anyway. If the note he’d received in his locker was of any indication, Gintoki would be returning sometime later in the day.

Speaking of later, Hijikata was told to meet the perm head at 12:50. Right now, according to the cell phone shoved in his pocket, it was 12:46. Hijikata stuffed his bag in his locker and began making his way to the M lockers.

-x-X-x-X-x-

The room was empty.

That was the first thing Hijikata noticed when he stepped into the classroom and flipped the light switch. The desks and chairs were lined up in neat rows, the teacher’s desk was clear of papers and whatnot, and the whiteboards were blank. There was no Gintoki sitting casually at the edge of the teacher’s desk with his dangling legs swinging back and forth and that stupid grin of his.

Or so he thought. Hijikata didn’t have time to react as someone bodyslammed into him and sent the two of them sprawling. His eyes squeezed shut upon impact and Hijikata could feel his ponytail unravel a bit. He curled his hand into a fist, but before he could deliver a punch a hand wrapped around his wrists and pulled his arms over his head. The person’s other hand brushed Hijikata’s bangs out of his eyes and grinned down at him. Hijikata’s eyes widened in recognition.

“You-!”

Gintoki chuckled.

“Hey, Toshi!”

“Don’t ‘Toshi’ me. What the hell was that for?”

Gintoki tilted his head in a way that made his silver curls hang just over his crimson eyes. He didn’t know why, but Hijikata always thought it made him look more mischievous. That and the stupid grin stretched across his cheeks.

“Hey now, no need to act all cross. You don’t want me going home with a black eye, do you?”

Hijikata’s eyes fluttered shut when he felt the other’s soft, plump lips against his. His head bumped gently against the floor when Gintoki pressed down on them. It was a slow kiss, almost innocent, until Gintoki swiped his tongue across Hijikata’s bottom lip. The other was quick to part his lips and twist his tongue together with Gintoki’s.

The kiss soon became more heated, and at one point Gintoki had released Hijikata’s hands and was now supporting his weight with his forearms on either side of Hijikata’s head. The other tangled his fingers in Gintoki’s curls and combed through them while their noses bumped and teeth clacked against each other.

Just before Gintoki was about to reach for Hijikata’s belt, a shout was heard outside. He broke the kiss, albeit reluctantly, and sat up on Hijikata’s waist, gaze now fixed on the windows.

Hijikata propped himself up on his elbows.

“Oi, get off, I wanna see.”

“Huh? Oh, right.”

Gintoki rolled off Hijikata and helped the other up on his feet. He watched as the other redid his ponytail and pushed his jet black hair behind his shoulder. He would have stood forever staring at Hijikata’s hair if it weren’t for the flick on his forehead.

“Owww!”

“Stop staring into space, will ya?”

Gintoki huffed and rubbed at the spot between his eyebrows, eyes stinging. Damn, Hijikata needed to cut his nails.

“Holy shit, he actually did it!”

Gintoki whipped his head to the window where Hijikata stood with his nose pressed against the glass pane. He walked up to him and peered outside as well.

“Huh. And here I thought he’d chicken out.”

Hijikata turned and frowned at the perm head.

“You need to have more confidence in your friends, Gintoki.”

At first, silence.

Then an arm snaked around his waist. Hijikata yelped in surprise.

“Well, that might be true, but...”

Hijikata made a noise as Gintoki turned him around and pressed him against the window, the perm head’s hands stilling at his hips. He shivered when he felt the other’s lips brush his ear.

“...I’m confident enough with you, aren’t I?”

Gintoki was expecting a blush and a shitload of spluttering but was caught off-guard when the other leaned forward and kissed him full on the mouth. He blinked.

Hijikata never failed to surprise him, did he?

-x-X-x-X-x-

Katsura was quite literally speechless. His mouth was frozen in an almost perfect ‘O’, feet rooted to the newly-cut grass on the school’s front yard, eyes gaping at the sight before him.

There Takasugi stood with his arms crossed, a confident smirk playing across his features. His head was tilted to the side, concealing the left side of his face and the eyepatch that covered his beautiful green eye.

He wasn’t alone. Beside him stood what Katsura could only perceive as a duck. It reached Takasugi’s hip and stared blankly ahead with wide open eyes. Its face was completely devoid of emotion and it stood stock still.

In its flippers was a wreath. It was shaped like a heart and was large enough to span as far as the duck could reach with both its arms outstretched. The wreath was made up of the most colorful array of flowers Katsura had ever seen. Not the every-color-in-the-rainbow kind of colorful that would give people a headache just looking at it. It was the kind of colorful that one would never get tired of looking at, that one could never get enough of because there was just so much _diversity_.

Katsura didn’t know how long he stood there with his jaw on the floor, but he was fully aware that a small crowd was forming behind him. He would have stared forever had Takasugi not bent down to pick the duck up. He rested it in the crook of his right elbow and held the other hand out to Katsura. The grin on his face was replaced with a gentle smile that Katsura knew the other only used for him. It caused his heart to beat painfully in his chest and the invisible force rooting him to the spot to disappear. Katsura wasted no time in shrugging his pack off his shoulders, closing the distance between them, wrapping his arms around Takasugi’s neck, and mashing his lips together with his.

Takasugi was too stunned to kiss back at first. His eyes popped open almost all the way and he nearly dropped the duck he was holding. The only thing that brought him back to his senses was Katsura’s tongue swiping against his bottom lip. He was quick to part his lips and slide his free hand into Katsura’s ebony locks, combing them out and feeling their softness.

Katsura didn’t know how many people were watching, or if the thud on the pavement was someone fainting, but one thing was for sure. That duck's new name was Elizabeth.

**Author's Note:**

> I wouldn't have posted this if it weren't for Sweetysweet, cuz I'd cringe harder and harder whenever I'd read over this.
> 
> That being said...*runs away*


End file.
